‘Oh, that’s just my pet bird’: The most outrageous things candidates did in interviews

by Tim Gould

Every HR professional could write a book recounting candidate interviews that have gone horribly — and hilariously — wrong. But can you top these forehead-slappers from CareerBuilder?  

A nationwide survey, conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder among more than 2,500 hiring and human resource managers (more than 2,300 in the private sector) asked participants to share the strangest things job candidates have done during the interview process.

And here they are:

• Candidate took a family photo off of interviewer’s desk and put it into her purse.
• Candidate started screaming that the interview was taking too long.
• Candidate said her main job was being a psychic/medium and tried to read interviewer’s palm, despite interviewer’s attempts to decline the offer.
• When asked what her ideal job was, candidate said “painter of birdhouses.” (Company was hiring for a data entry clerk.)
• Candidate sang her responses to questions.
• Candidate put lotion on her feet during the interview.
• When asked why he wanted the position, candidate replied, “My wife wants me to get a job.”
• Candidate started feeling interviewer’s chest to find a heartbeat so they could “connect heart to heart.”
• Candidate had a pet bird in her shirt.
• Candidate took phone interview in the bathroom – and flushed.

Beat those, We dare you.

Quick decision-making

The survey also determined that it doesn’t take long for hiring managers to know whether or not they’re talking to a viable candidate — 50% of employers know within the first five minutes of an interview if a candidate is a good fit for a position. That’s on par with 49% last year.

Click here for entire article. 

Obama proposes expansion of employee retirement plan options

by Tim Gould

The Obama administration is proposing some new ways to get employees involved in saving for retirement.  

The retirement proposals are part of an economic security agenda Obama outlined in his recent State of the Union address.

The president’s plan will involve a number of legislative proposals, which he’s expected to outline in the 2017 budget he’ll submit to Congress next month.

Here are the key parts of the proposal, as outlined in a fact sheet issued by the White House:

• Make it easier for employers to create pooled 401(k) plans to lower cost and burden. Multiple employer plans (MEPs) already allow employers with a “common bond” to form a pooled retirement plan, offering benefits through the same administrative structure but with lower costs and less compliance burden than if each employer offered a separate plan. In his upcoming budget, the president will for the first time propose to remove the “common bond” requirement, enabling employers to take advantage of “open MEPs” while adding significant new safeguards to ensure workers are protected. As a result, more small businesses should be able to offer cost-effective, pooled plans to their workers, and certain nonprofits and other intermediaries will be able to create plans for contractors and other self-employed individuals who don’t have access to a plan at work. As an added benefit, if an employee moves between employers participating in the same open MEP, or is an independent contractor participating in a pooled plan using the open MEP structure, he can continue contributing to the same plan even if he starts work for a different company.

Click here for entire article. 

Court’s wellness ruling is good news, but beware of ACA interaction

by Christian Schappel

Employers and employer-side attorneys have been celebrating a recent court ruling that shot down an EEOC lawsuit. The suit claimed major components of an employer’s wellness program were illegal. But the celebration may be short-lived due to the ACA. 

The lawsuit

The EEOC sued Flambeau Inc., a plastics manufacturer, claiming its wellness program violated the ADA because it required workers to submit to “medical examinations” that weren’t job-related or part of a “voluntary” wellness program.

Flambeau had a requirement that stipulated that any employee who wanted to enroll in the company’s health insurance plan had to submit to its wellness program’s biometric screening and health risk assessment. The results of those “exams” would be used in aggregate form to aid in the health plan’s underwriting and risk administration.

The EEOC said the wellness program wasn’t “voluntary” because the non-participation penalty — i.e., the prohibition from enrolling in the company’s health plan — was so steep.

Flambeau fought the lawsuit, claiming the exams fell under an ADA safe harbor that allows employers to conduct activities related to the administration of a bona fide insurance benefit plan.

Click here for entire article.

Tip Tuesday! Ignoring discrimination complaints costs how much? This firm’s out $4M

by Christian Schappel

Discrimination is not something you want to go ignored, especially if you have a large workforce. Here’s a great example of why managers can’t let complaints slide to the back burner. 

If an employee complains, investigate. You don’t want to end up like Tyson Foods.

Tyson owns Hillshire Brands Co., which is the parent company for Sara Lee.

African-American bakery workers at a Sara Lee plant in Paris, TX, said they complained to management about being subjected to racial slurs and racist bathroom graffiti. The workers then claimed those complaints went unaddressed, which allowed the slurs and graffiti to continue.

As a result, the workers complained to the EEOC that they were being subjected to a racially hostile work environment.

The EEOC investigated and found that the slurs and graffiti continued for years, until the plant closed its doors in 2011, according to Meaghan L. Shepard, trial attorney for the Dallas District of the EEOC.

Click here for entire article. 

New OT rules create ‘perfect storm’ for lawsuits, attorney says

by Christian Schappel

Employers are eager to see what the DOL’s new overtime rules will look like this summer — not because they’re fans, but because they want to see how much their FLSA compliance efforts will have to change in a very short period of time (within 60 days, most likely). 

Employers don’t know exactly what the rules will look like, but they do know the requirements — like a higher salary threshold for exempt employees — will make more employees OT-eligible.

An increase (and likely a large one to boot) in the number of non-exempt employees is scary enough for employers. But it likely won’t end there.

Add to that a potential increase in the complexity of the “white collar duties” tests, widespread minimum wage hikes and the attention federal regulators are paying to independent contractor classifications — and you’ve what employment law attorney Richard Alfred described to Fortune as “a perfect storm for new lawsuits.”

Alfred, who heads up the wage-and-hour practice at the law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP, told Fortune he expects the number of overtime lawsuits alone to increase to about 9,000 this year. That would roughly be a 10% increase in the number of lawsuits filed in 2015 — a number which stood at 8,160, according to Alfred.

Two big reasons for the potential increase in lawsuits include:

Click here for entire article. 

EEOC task force identifies 6 tactics to curb harassment

by Christian Schappel

For nearly a year now, a task force created by the EEOC has been charged with finding the best ways to stymie harassment of all types in the workplace — and its efforts are starting to bear fruit. 

At its second public meeting, the EEOC’s Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace named these tactics as some of the best ways to stop/prevent workplace harassment:

• Get buyers to place pressure on companies to prevent harassment.
• Empower bystanders to be part of the solution.
• Create multiple access points for reporting harassment.
• Conduct prompt investigations into reports of harassment.
• Take swift disciplinary action when warranted.
• Get strong support from top leadership for anti-harassment initiatives.

In addition, Heidi-Jane Olguin, CEO of Progressive Management Resources, who was invited to speak at the meeting, suggested ways employers can make harassment training more effective. They were:

Click here fore entire article. 

Are you using mobile devices to bolster training programs? It’s time

by Tim Gould

As a more tech savvy crowd enters the workforce, it’s critical that employers start to use all the benefits mobile technology has to offer. 

Reason: Almost everyone today has a smartphone they use to perform at least some work-related tasks on the go – answering email, making calls, conducting research, etc.

And it pays to alter training programs to take full advantage of that work style as more employees begin to adopt it.

Training upgrades:

John McCann, a digital marketing specialist for the online teaching company eCoach, said a recent survey by Brandon Hall Group found that 73% of organisations are now actively involved in mobile learning of one sort or another, and 87% planned to increase “mLearning” use within the following year.

Click here for entire article.

Tip Tuesday! FMLA: Is phone text enough to provide notice of need for leave?

by Christian Schappel

More employees are communicating with their managers via texts. So what are your managers supposed to do when a text contains possible medical or FMLA-related info? 

That’s a tricky question, and the answer, quite frankly, depends on two things:

• What your leave policy or call-in policies say, and
• How your managers have treated employees’ texts in the past.

Courts will look to both to see what kind of precedent you’ve set.

Take a recent FMLA lawsuit against Tyson Fresh Meats as a warning on both of these fronts.

Tyson had a call-in policy that stated:

“All management Team Members are expected to personally call their direct supervisor to report an unplanned absence or to report that they will be late.”

This is not unlike a lot of call-in policies employers are allowed to (and do) tie to their FMLA policies that require employees to call in prior to an absence — even an FMLA-related one. Courts have upheld terminations in which an employee out on FMLA leave was fired for failing to abide by such a policy.

Click here for entire article.

Top HIPAA violators: Is your healthcare provider on this list?

by Jared Bilski

An employee who posted a veteran’s confidential medical information on Facebook and talked about the info with her friends is just one of the hundreds of complaints that helped this organization earn the top spot on the list of top HIPAA violators.

The organization that earned the most HIPAA complaints was none other than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The provider racked up an impressive 220 complaints over the past four years, according to research by the nonprofit ProPublica.

Other top offenders

Rounding out the list of the top 10 violators:

• CVS Health (204 complaints)
• Walgreens (183)
• Kaiser Permanente (146)
• Walmart (71)

Click here for entire article. 

Using social media for recruiting continues to grow: Survey

by Tim Gould

Social media has become a fact of life in many companies’ recruiting — and screening — process. 

Latest evidence: Over one-third of companies have disqualified a job candidate in the past year because of concerns about information found on public social media or an online search, according to a recent Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey.

Candidates were disqualified for illegal activity and discrepancies with job applications, among other reasons. However, two out of five organizations (39%) also allowed those candidates to explain any concerning information, an increase of 13 percentage points compared to 2011.

“Social media is another way recruiters verify applicants’ employment history and ensure that they are still viable applicants,” said Evren Esen, director of survey programs at SHRM. “Social media is here to stay, so employers and employees are utilizing it in various ways throughout the job search process.”


Recruiting passive job candidates remains the top reason that organizations use social media for recruitment. Currently, 84% of organizations use social media to recruit and 9% plan to use it.

Click here for entire article.

Careful — new OT regs could mean increased timesheet fraud

by Tim Gould

You want to believe that all employees will be honest about their “hours worked” when it comes to filling out their timesheets. But what happens when workers are blatantly cheating the system?   

Timesheet fraud is a real problem that can take a huge chunk out of employers’ bottom lines – especially those in industries and jobs where it’s easy for workers to cheat.

Plus, the DOL’s new OT regs will likely see a lot of formerly exempt employees punching a timecard for the first time in their careers. And resentment for having to do this may lead some staff to take some liberties with their timekeeping.

When is it stealing?

One of the best ways to prevent timesheet fraud – also known as wage theft – is to be aware of the various ways that employees can engage in fraudulent timekeeping such as:

• engaging in personal activities outside normal breaks while on the clock
• coming in late but recording it as “on time”
• recording time falsely for another employee, or
• taking an extended meal break but recording less time.

Click here for entire article. 

Tip Tuesday! 7 must-haves for defensible documentation

by Julian Lopez

You know how important clear and thorough documentation is. But your managers may be another story. 

Thankfully, employment law attorney Allison West has some steps managers can use to make documenting performance issues less painful — and more defensible if ever brought up during a lawsuit.

Her firm, Employment Practices Specialists, helps companies prevent and resolve employment claims.

West shared these steps at the SHRM15 Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

What managers need to do

Of course, it’s smart to record the good with the bad. But when performance problems arise, West said managers need to include seven points in their documentation:

1. The unmet expectations

What goals, policies or standards has the employee not met?
It’s good to refer back to a specific job description or a code of conduct, and be specific about why the conduct is a problem.

2. Behavior that needs to change

Focus on the conduct alone, not the person, and stick to objective observations and details, West says.
Example: If you think a worker is drunk on the job, write what makes you think that. Did the worker slur words together, stumble to the desk, or have alcohol on his or her breath?
It’s also good to record examples of how the conduct impacted others and the work environment.

Click here for entire article. 

IRS drops business mileage rate drops to 5-year low

by Tim Gould

You may have some disgruntled business travelers after you announce this.  

It won’t be the happiest new year for your company’s road warriors. IRS recently released the standard mileage rate for 2016, and they cut it by almost 10%.

You can now reimburse employees tax-free at the rate of 54 cents per mile. That’s down from the 57.5 cents you could offer them in 2015.


Of course this change is a direct result of gas prices being down, but you can bet employees won’t want to hear about that. All they’ll see is that they’re getting less each time they hit the road. So tell A/P to prep for some griping … and to bounce back expense reports that try to claim the old rate.

Click here for entire article. 

Court offers 3 clauses you’d be wise to include in severance agreements

by Christian Schappel

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals just threw out an EEOC lawsuit against CVS that attacked some pretty common language found in severance agreements. But in doing so, it applauded three clauses CVS used. 

We’ll get to those clauses in a second. But first, it’s important to know why the EEOC took issue with CVS’ severance agreements.

The EEOC sued CVS, claiming the pharmacy chain’s severance agreements with employees contained a general release of claims and a covenant not to sue that illegally restricted worker’s rights to file charges or cooperate with the agency.

The lawsuit was fairly troubling to employers because the language the EEOC was attacking is fairly boilerplate — at least as far as severance agreements are concerned.

Here are two clauses of CVS’ agreements the EEOC was challenging (they should sound familiar):

Click here for entire article. 

Another Obamacare delay employers will love

by Christian Schappel

A major requirement of the ACA has just been pushed back, and there’s little doubt employers are going to celebrate the delay. 

What’s been delayed? The reporting requirements that tell the IRS which large employers (those with 50 or more full-time/full-time equivalent employees) offered  employees the level of healthcare coverage required under Obamacare for the 2015 plan year.

They delays are welcome news for employers and plan sponsors. They’ve been scrambling to comply with the requirements and the nearing reporting deadlines after just getting the final rules and forms in late summer (here’s HR Morning’s plain-English breakdown).

But while the delays do give employers some much-needed breathing room, they don’t push the deadlines back that far, so employers need to maintain their sense of urgency.

The new deadlines

Here’s the lowdown on what’s due when:

• The due date for providing the Forms 1095-B and 1095-C to individuals has been pushed back from Feb. 1, 2016 to March 31, 2016.
• The date for submitting Forms 1094-B and 1094-C to the IRS — for those filing paper forms — has been pushed back from Feb. 29, 2016 to May 31, 2016.
• The date for submitting Forms 1094-B and 1094-C to the IRS electronically (e-filing is required for those submitting 250 or more forms) has been pushed back from March 31, 2016 to June 30, 2016.

Click here for entire article.

Tip Tuesday! A quick rundown of the key segments of DOL’s 2016 to-do list

by Tim Gould

The delay of the new final overtime rules wasn’t the only announcement the DOL made recently.  

In the fall edition of the agency’s Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, the DOL announced some of the major compliance and enforcement tasks it hopes to accomplish in the new year.

As we reported previously, the announcement that the release of the overtime rules would be delayed until at least July garnered the most attention from employers. And that announcement may have caused some of these things to fly under the radar:

3 key highlights

1. Electronic devices. The DOL is now shooting for February as the date in which it formally requests info from employers on how employees’ use of electronic devices affects work performed outside of regular office hours. If you remember, the feds initially planned on seeking this employer input by the end of August.

The proposed OT rules are a big part of why the feds are so interested in this info.

With more employees eligible for overtime under the new rules, the agency has heard concerns from employers about giving workers smartphones or allowing them to work remotely because time spent using those devices may count as “work-specific” time.

The Director of Labor Law Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Marc Freedman explained the concerns employers have about the risks associated with workers using electronic devices by saying:

Click here for entire article.